Reflecting another full month when much of the country was under stay-at-home orders because of the Covid-19 pandemic, total net book sales in May in the U.S. fell 12.1%, to $1.05 billion, compared to May 2019, representing sales of 1,360 publishers and distributed clients as reported to the Association of American Publishers. For the year to date, total net book sales were down 4.5%, to $4.34 billion.
Overall trade sales fell 7.9%, to $635.8 million in May, and were down 1.5%, to $2.8 billion, in the first five months of the year.
Not surprisingly, given the closing of many bricks-and-mortar stores, sales of printed trade books were down in May, with hardcovers off 18.5%, paperbacks off 16.9%, and mass markets off 0.6%.
By contrast, in May, e-book sales overall rose 39.2%, to $113 million, and downloaded audio sales rose 22%, to $54.2 million, led by a gain in children's/YA downloaded audio of 69.4%, to $5.4 million.
Sales by category in May 2020 compared to May 2019:
